Wole Soyinka

[Heteronym]

The 1986 Nobel Prize Winner, Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian author who has written plays, novels, poetry and essays. I know nothing about him, I've never read him, but I'm interested in trying something by him.

Anyone here has read him?

 

[Bjorn]

I've read Aké and really liked it:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com.../5019-Wole-Soyinka-Aké-The-Years-of-Childhood

 

[mesnalty]

I've read Death and the King's Horseman, The Lion and the Jewel, and the two Jero plays. I remember really liking the first one. The Jero plays are amusing, but fairly unsubstantial. When I read The Lion and the Jewel I got the sense that I didn't know enough about Nigerian culture to understand it, so I won't pass judgement. But yes, Death and the King's Horseman is very much recommended.

 

[Heteronym]

Well, I've ordered the first volume of his collected plays. I'm anxious to discover Soyinka.

 

[hayden]

Surprised how deep I had to dive to fish this thread out.

Just curious if anyone here has read his latest novel Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth and have any thoughts on it. Figured I'd crack it open, but reviews are just a bit more mixed than I expected. Usually I go with my gut when picking a book to read, but I trust your opinions.

 

[Stevie B]

I read Soyinka's prison memoir The Man Died so long ago that my recollection of it is faint, at best. One of the few things that stayed with me, however, was Soyinka's sense of superiority that seemed to rise to the point of arrogance. Although I can completely understand his antipathy towards his prison guards, for example, I don't think it was fair to simply cast them as ignorant brutes. I think Soyinka could have dived deeper and, perhaps, at least acknowledged that he had benefitted from a good education whereas the majority of his captors likely hadn't. I'm not sure if my assessment in this regard is fair, but I do know that a negative impression of the author was a takeaway that put me off from reading Soyinka again. In hindsight, however, I should give him another chance and I'd also be up to hearing any book/play recommendations.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I read Soyinka's prison memoir The Man Died so long ago that my recollection of it is faint, at best. One of the few things that stayed with me, however, was Soyinka's sense of superiority that seemed to rise to the point of arrogance. Although I can completely understand his antipathy towards his prison guards, for example, I don't think it was fair to simply cast them as ignorant brutes. I think Soyinka could have dived deeper and, perhaps, at least acknowledged that he had benefitted from a good education whereas the majority of his captors likely hadn't. I'm not sure if my assessment in this regard is fair, but I do know that a negative impression of the author was a takeaway that put me off from reading Soyinka again. In hindsight, however, I should give him another chance and I'd also be up to hearing any book/play recommendations.

I dedicated this reading month to the great masters of African literature. Plan was to read a couple of works by Ngugi, Coetzee and dive into Gurnah and Soyinka.
A few days ago I picked The Man Died and after 60 pp I had to put it down. Of course it's a very political work, referring to things about Nigerian politics and history we have no idea as outsiders; he doesn't even try to explain it, like it's written only for people who know about the conflict, probably not even for the whole population in Nigeria who doesn't have access to information or judgement. And there is where I can relate to what you say about his arrogance, as he says in many pages, that what he is doing is something he only can do.
Besides one play and and a few poems, I haven't really found greatness in Soyinka. I've tried so hard but after this I think I'm done with him.

 

[Ben Jackson]

Finally, a thread on a Nigerian writer.

Wole Soyinka is, in my opinion, one of the greatest writers to ever win the Nobel Prize. I have read almost ten of his works and have seen greatness in nearly every book I've read.

His work is known for been difficult and demanding (his works have links to modernism so a reader won't be surprised) but extremely rewarding; has, especially his poetry, become so polemical. His work is also marked by erudition, and according to the Nobel Commitee, influenced tremendously by the Western Canon from Jung and Nietzsche, Ancient Greek Drama (Euripides and Sophocles), to Shakespeare, Japanese Noh drama, Modernism and Brecht (his play Trials of Brother Jero has traces of Brecht), but features Ogun (he identifies him with Dionysus after reading Nietszche essay Birth of Tragedy), his demiurge who's god of metal and creativity in Yoruba mythology; by making him the center of most of his works. His novel The Interpreters (he has written three novels now but that's the only one I've read), a story of six intellectuals who has returned to Lagos from their studies oversees; their experiences in a decaying, morally corrupt society, is, to my observation, a Faulknerian narrative set in a Joycean environment (a dense-like, intense interior monologue in an urban setting), and a brilliant retort to Joyce Ulysees, a novel it's always compared to. Recommended are his dramatic productions A Dance of the Forests, a dense, powerful work with themes of reincarnation performed as an Independence play and marked with appearances of ghosts, masquerades and Ogun himself (a play I'll rank alongside Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream), Death and the King's Horseman, another poweful play with echoes of Greek Tragedians, and his highy pessimistic work Madmen and the Specialists, a work illustrating the erosion of human lives and human wickedeness through cannibalistic acts perpetrated by Dr Bero, the head of the group known as "the specialists" with traces of Martin Heidegger, Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, are considered some of the finest achievements in African drama. Another of his books I'll recommended are the two memoirs I've read ( he has written five memoirs) Ake (about his childhood in his village Ake in Abeokuta, Ogun State where he hails from) and You Must set Forth at Dawn (his experiences from 1957, when he began work on his first play The Invention, to his return to Nigeria in 2005). His poetry, while not as popular as his dramatic productions for which he's known for, are also marked by high intellectualism and erudition and originality, with traces of Dylan Thomas, T S Eliot and Dante in his two volumes I've read A Shuttle in the Crypt and Idanre and Other Poems, that shapes his drama.

A deserving Nobel Laurete, Soyinka's a great, original writer in my opinion and a giant of African Literature and 20th century drama in the same level as Beckett, Ionesco, Eugene O'Neill and Pinter.

 

[Leseratte]

Up to now I read only one book by Wole Soyinka, and that many years ago, @Ben Jackson. I only vaguely remember that it was about his prison time and that the language was intellectual. But I appreciate your warm defense, it´s quite an essay you wrote on his behalf. I guess I`ll have to go back to his work.

 

[Benny Profane]

I read "The Lion and the Jewel" a couple of years ago and I'm looking foward to see it in a theatre as soon as possible. ?
Beautiful play!

 

[Benny Profane]

Nobel de literatura nigeriano fala sobre 'roubo' de estatueta sagrada africana no Brasil; entenda

Autor Wole Soyinka entrou para a lista da Interpol; caso vai virar filme após 50 anos

oglobo.globo.com

Unfortunatelly, in Portuguese. Sorry, guys!!! Please, use Google Translator to read it.
LOL! What a peculiar plot!!!

Soyinka is here again (in my city and my country) and none of our publish houses don't publish The Interpreteers or his collected plays or his poetry.

 

[Leseratte]

Nobel de literatura nigeriano fala sobre 'roubo' de estatueta sagrada africana no Brasil; entenda

Autor Wole Soyinka entrou para a lista da Interpol; caso vai virar filme após 50 anos

oglobo.globo.com

Unfortunatelly, in Portuguese. Sorry, guys!!! Please, use Google Translator to read it.
LOL! What a peculiar plot!!!

Soyinka is here again (in my city and my country) and none of our publish houses don't publish The Interpreteers or his collected plays or his poetry.

But with pay wall unfortunately. O Globo is terrible with pay walls!

 

[Leseratte]

Benny reminded me. Soyinka in the festival Black2 Black here in Brazil. There are also Conceição Evaristo, Zezé Motta and other exponents of Black culture. In Portuguese but hopefully without pay wall so you at least can see them or translate the page with Google.

Festival Back2Black celebra continente africano e sua musicalidade no Rio

Zezé Motta e a escritora Conceição Evaristo estão entre as grandes personalidades que participaram do primeiro dia do festival que está em sua 11ª edição. Em 2023, o evento, que vai até domingo (28), comemora os 60 anos do Dia da África.

g1.globo.com

 

[Ben Jackson]

That should be the second or third time Soyinka's visiting Brazil. I did remember he visited Brazil in the 90s or 2000s. He's a good friend of Dilma Rouseff.

 

[Leseratte]

That should be the second or third time Soyinka's visiting Brazil. I did remember he visited Brazil in the 90s or 2000s. He's a good friend of Dilma Rouseff.

But I believe Dilma is in China just now, where she recently assumed the position of director (or President) of the Bank of the BRICS.

 

[Bartleby]

 

[Benny Profane]

^^Quer me matar de susto, rapaz? LOL!!!

Do you want to scare me, brother? LOL!